Sunday, October 2, 2011

The pigskin problem

I am not sure when it happened but I've become a football fan - not the kind that can scream at the television set, although I fear that may be coming. This is season three in the Lubold house. Coach dad and my eldest have been hitting the gridiron since third grade. I've watched but have not been engaged. It was so bad, I got "Football for Dummies" as a gift. This year I read it because I wanted to feel the excitement 3/4 of my family felt. I wanted to participate in the after game talks and the pre game excitement. I think I may have created a monster. Well, maybe not a monster but an overly passionate fan that has left behind the ability to sit still at a game. I even have a ritual now. I climb to the highest part of the stadium to watch the game and follow the plays. I watch the snap and then I watch my boy do his job by staying home and then rushing to the quarterback. I cheer things like, "good D" and "get there, get there, get there " while clapping my hands until they sting. In truth, I don't climb high and away from people just for the better view. I just can't watch the game in silence anymore. It's embarrassing. Up high there are other screamers like me. One person brought an air horn. Sometimes I am joined by a fellow teammate's dad, a burly guy with black tattoo writing down the side of his neck. We don't sit together but we nod a proverbial back slap to one another when I understand a play. Football has gotten under my skin. And yet I don't completely love it. The mom in me flinches frequently during pile ups. Sometimes I cover my eyes. I doubt I will ever utter the words, "good hit." When our QB suffered a big blow my cheering turned to talking to myself. "He's holding his head...take him out...don't put him back in. He's hurt. He's hurt." The coaches sat the QB. Yet, I felt no relief. It was not my son but it may as well have been. How quickly love can turn to hate at the top of the bleachers. Not sure there is any reconciling to this. As the coach says, it's all part of the game.

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